Stop Circumcision

Ye Jin Moon
March 2012

Ye Jin Moon

Dear Brothers and Sisters of Cheon Il Guk,

Warmest greetings to all of you. I would like to take this opportunity to share with all of you one particular topic that has been heavy on my heart and which I believe to be an equally critical topic for all the central blessed families and Unification Church members at large. The topic in question is the practice of circumcision and the lack of clear, Principled guidance about why circumcision is no longer a defensible practice in this era of settlement in Cheon Il Guk, when we must move beyond all the indemnity conditions, which have deeply sorrowed our Heavenly Parent ever since the Fall, though they were necessary in fallen human history.

True Parents have taught us that originally our Heavenly Parent created human beings to be our Heavenly Parent's children, or ultimate object partners, endowed to experience our Heavenly Parent's complete love in all the facets of life, as we ourselves are a microcosm of the entire creational effort.

True Parents have repeatedly taught us that the place where God's absolute love and the absolute love of humankind meet is where the man and woman's sexual organs are united. The male and female sexual organs are God's original palace of love where love, life, and lineage connect and perpetuate. Human sexual organs are the root of life, the basis for the continuance of the universe, and the starting base for God's kingdom on earth and in heaven. All the more, because the human sexual organs symbolize the microcosm of the creation or the center where love, life and lineage are to merge and perpetuate for eternity, our Heavenly Parent had invested with utmost diligence, utmost pleasure and care in creating them, and was well pleased with the result.

Nevertheless, our Heavenly Parent's heart was utterly shattered when Adam and Eve committed the Fall and could not unite with their Heavenly Parent in absolute sex and be an absolute couple centering on their Heavenly Parent. It was only on account of the Fall that what our Heavenly Parent had originally envisioned as the most precious symbolic parts, the sexual organs where love, life, and lineage were to merge as one, became the emblems of evil, the icons of sin and fallen lineage, giving our Heavenly Parent no place to abide until restoration is complete. Until then, this fractured history of separation of our Heavenly Parent and humanity, the division into heaven and hell, has been our broken, dysfunctional, cosmic reality. During the indemnity history, humanity had to reap what our first ancestors had sown through wrongdoing committed with their sexual parts and offered to the satanic position, our false parent. In light of this, notwithstanding God's inconsolable pain and sorrow, our Heavenly Parent had no choice but to accept in tears the condition of circumcision as a means of conditional separation from evil until the time when restoration and liberation from all sin is complete.

We learned that it was only because of the Fall that it became necessary for conditions to be set during the history of restoration through indemnity. However, if we are now beyond the history of indemnity and have entered the settlement era of Cheon Il Guk, it is incumbent upon all of us to separate ourselves from the remnants of the history of indemnity, and do our utmost to achieve the original ideal of the Heavenly Parent's creation. One case in point is the practice of circumcision.

Circumcision was never part of the original design of the first man and woman, whom our Heavenly Parent created in the last creative act before our Heavenly Parent rested from the work of the Creation. Our Heavenly Parent did not have a change of heart after finishing the creation of Adam and Eve -- as if the perfect Heavenly Parent could have made mistakes in the Creation and had to redo the already finished work by having parts of Adam and Eve's genitalia cut off.

On the contrary, our Heavenly Parent found only joy and saw goodness in the completed work represented in Adam and Eve as the first human beings, with all the parts of their spiritual and physical selves intact and complete. When we consider our cosmic reality, we must examine it by separating the Heavenly Parent's portion of the responsibility to complete the creation, which is absolute, eternal, perfect, and good, and the human portion, based on free will, with which our Heavenly Parent does not interfere. The human portion of that responsibility also affects how the course of humanity and of the entire creation moves and changes. Employing the Principled logic of the Heavenly Parent and human beings sharing this responsibility, we can have absolute conviction that our Heavenly Parent's part in the creation of human beings was absolute, eternal, perfect and good.

Exposition of the Divine Principle explains why the condition of circumcision became providentially necessary for the purpose of paying indemnity:

Let us examine the deeper significance of circumcision. When the first human ancestors fell through a sexual relationship with Satan, they inherited the blood of death through the male sexual organ. In the course for fallen people to be restored as God's Children, God established the rite of circumcision as a condition of indemnity... Circumcision signifies removing the blood of death.

Circumcision was used as a temporary indemnity measure. A portion of the male sexual part was removed, symbolizing the removal of the blood of death inherited from the first human ancestor's un-Principled sexual relationship. However, if we are now beyond the history of indemnity and those in the position of the restored Adam and Eve -- the True Parents -- have succeeded through the change of bloodline to nullify the blood of death inherited through Adam and Eve's sexual fall with Lucifer, there is absolutely no reason to continue with the practice of circumcision.

An anti-circumcision protest march in San Francisco, California

Over the many decades of his ministry Father has often mentioned that although the rite of circumcision was a necessary condition for the chosen people in the Old Testament era, it is not needed today. For instance, in October 2002 Father emphasized that circumcision as has been practiced by fallen humanity is wrong and no longer necessary after the history of restoration.

In fact, if we, knowing that we are beyond the past history of indemnity, still chose to practice remnants of the history of indemnity of the past such as circumcision, we would be positioning ourselves as if to suggest that we are still in the part of the sinful history requiring salvation, separation from the "blood of death." If this be the case, would it not then be a contradiction on our part to call ourselves blessed families, which are by definition connected to the heavenly lineage?

For many years, the issue of circumcision has been a deep concern of mine as I have personal experiences relating to it and have witnessed many blessed families struggling with the issue.

I first faced the issue when I had my first son in 1982. When my mother-in-law came from Korea to welcome her grandson, to my surprise, she asked me when I was going to circumcise him. She said that South Koreans routinely circumcise their boys for religious and medical reasons. She also apologized that because my husband was the oldest, born during the days when she and her husband were on a pioneering mission, she had not had a chance to circumcise him. She continued that if my husband and I wanted, he could still be circumcised, as that is also a frequent practice for older men in South Korea. I vehemently objected to what I considered to be not only a primitive and barbaric practice but also an un-Principled indemnity condition that was not according to the original desire of our Heavenly Parent.

Circumcision was never a custom in Korea in times past, but it became a cultural norm beginning around the 1950s with the influx of United States' military personnel and American Christian missionaries, who brought their own moral interpretations regarding the practice. As time passed, although the practice of circumcision has diminished drastically in the United States and other countries, heavily Christianized South Korea has maintained its stubborn stance on circumcision, citing religious and medical relevancy even to this day."

This widespread cultural practice of circumcision in South Korean society has been a significant source of confusion for Korean blessed families and international blessed couples. Research done on the Korean blessed families' attitude to circumcision found that Korean blessed families most often opt for circumcision precisely because the Korean culture as a whole still favors circumcision. Without clear, direct and official Unification Church guidelines, Korean blessed families are left perplexed and easily influenced by the South Korean culture, where circumcision is rampant to the point that more than 80 percent of men below forty years of age have undergone circumcision."

The Korean Unification Church's lack of clear Principled guidance on the issue of circumcision is a serious problem for Unificationists worldwide, for they look to Korea as the fatherland of our faith and expect the Korean Unification Church to be the exemplary guide in answering their questions related to their life of faith based on the Principle.

In 1985, first in Korean and then in other languages, the only official Unification Church guideline on the subject of circumcision was published in The Tradition, under the guidance of then international president Chung Hwan Kwak. On page 163, it states:

Unification Church View on Circumcision

The Unification Church takes the position that there is no spiritual reason for circumcision. It is not the customary practice in many nations throughout the world, although Western hospitals offer the option of circumcising male children. Medical reasons given for the practice usually relate to hygiene; however, recent studies question that justification.

Since there is no spiritual reason to do this, many members have chosen not to circumcise; however, this decision should be made by the parents themselves. Throughout the church as a whole, there is a strong tradition not to circumcise.

Although the book mentions that there is "no spiritual reason for circumcision," by adding the ambivalent "this decision should be made by the parents themselves," it creates room for misinterpretation and allows for the possibility that circumcision may continue.

As he was one of the elders from the 36-couple blessing group who had been entrusted to represent True Parents' Principled conviction on setting the true tradition (hence, the title of the book) for generations to come on such a critical topic as circumcision, The Tradition should have absolutely drawn a line of separation between the Heavenly Parent's original design, where there is no circumcision, and the indemnity condition, which required circumcision and had nothing to do with God's ideal or true heavenly tradition. But, having opted for prevarication instead of Principled clarity, the book invites confusion for the reader.

But, having opted for prevarication instead of Principled clarity, the book invites confusion for the reader. If we are now beyond the history of indemnity in its entirety, and if those in the position of the restored Adam and Eve -- the True Parents -- have succeeded through the change of bloodline to nullify the blood of death inherited through Adam and Eve's sexual fall with Lucifer, there is absolutely no reason to continue this mutilation. No spiritual nor earthly reason exists to continue any practice of circumcision on man or woman.

My heart reaches out to the blessed families who have experienced loss because there was no Principled, official guideline clarifying what was the original design and heart of our Heavenly Parent when man and woman were created with complete and intact sexual organs. At the same time, I would like to add by offering comfort to those who have circumcised their children, or have been circumcised themselves, that since we are eternal beings under our Heavenly Parent's promise, everyone will return to God in complete human perfection from the prospective of eternity. In our eternal life in the spirit, we will recover all that we lost during our physical life. If this promise were not true, people whose physical selves were damaged in the physical world or young children who died prematurely would not grow to have complete human form or value in the eternal realm.

As our Heavenly Parent is the balanced and harmonious being of masculinity and femininity, or Father God and Mother God, especially the Mother God side of our Heavenly Parent will warmly see to each of our needs and patiently work with each one of us to fully recover what our Heavenly Parent had originally envisioned in creating us -- that is, in the complete external form and internally substantiated value of our being.

After a long, hellish, serpentine route that had been the indemnity history of immeasurable loss and suffering, we are finally on the threshold of the settlement era of Cheon Il Guk, where the promise and the healing embrace of our Heavenly Parent await us all, to be cherished in joyous gratitude. However, as our Heavenly Parent is the parent of all people, not only should we work to restore ourselves as individuals but we should also work collectively with our siblings, that is all humankind, to grow together and to go arm in arm to the promised land, the kingdom of heaven, Cheon Il Guk, at the center of which is the Heavenly Parent's absolute heart, love and truth. As we embark on our road back to healing and peaceful settlement in the heart of our Heavenly Parent, we must necessarily separate ourselves from the remnants of the history of indemnity that had ruptured our hope for true life, true love and true lineage, as we become engrafted to our Heavenly Parent through our original sexual parts.

Please save the true love sexual organs! They are the original work of our Heavenly Parent. They are the just claim not only of ourselves but of our Heavenly Parent. They are the masterpieces of our Heavenly Parent's work of creation that must be cherished and protected.

Brothers and Sisters, please save the true love organs! They are for the good of all of us, as they are for true love, true life and true lineage, forever and ever more.